Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup lukewarm water and let work for 15 minutes. Mix sifted flour with baking powder, mahlep, mastic powder, vanilla extract and salt. Then add milk, sugar and eggs. Add melted butter. Start beating well. Add yeast. Mix it by adding the flour gradually. Pour out onto a lightly floured surface and continue to knead for about 10 minutes.The dough will become smooth, soft and elastic. Put into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 2 hours. After it has risen, pour out the dough and stretch it a bit. Then place it to a round pan. Put the pan on top of the oven and turn oven to 75° C till double in size about 30 minutes.

for top decoration:

1 yolk

3 T flour

1/2 t caster sugar

2 T water

black sesame

After risen, brush the top of the dough with beaten yolk. Mark vertical and horizontal lines using a fork.

Mix flour, caster sugar and water for the paste to write or to decorate.

Place the paste into a zip lock bag and cut the tip off. Squeeze the paste and decorate. Sprinkle black sesame.

Fish is an inseparable part of Aegean life both for Turkish and Greek people. Once it was consumed unworried. Today, the fishing industry is one of the biggest threats of the marine eco-system. For that reason, especially The Greenpeace Greece and Turkey draw attention to the fish size, fish stocks of the seas around us and overfishing.

The Lichia amia or leer fish or garrick, in Turkish akya, is found in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas as well as in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It is a large sized fish (generally 20-25 kg, rarely 60kg). Its fishing season runs from September to January.

Cut the thick slice into two and wash them. Drain well, then salt and flour the slices.

Heat the hazelnut oil in a skillet. Sear the slices lightly until the outside of the flesh turns white. Turn and sear on both sides and drain off the oil. While frying, it doesn’t have a fish smell and tastes like white meat.

Arrange the fried fish slices on a bed of dill in a serving plate. Add cherry tomatoes and sliced lemon. Serve immediately.

When our ancestors invented bread, the dough was made with sourdough not with a packet of yeast. Instead today it is almost impossible to find an old fashioned sour tasting bread. A sourdough bread is without yeast. When you compare with yeast based bread, it has a sour taste because of the lactic acid produced by the lactobacilli.

Once you get a sourdough, it stays for years. Every time, the bread is made with old dough saved in refrigerator from a prior batch. It is called mother dough which contains culture.

250 gr sourdough

2 cups of durum wheat(1 cup ?????? ???????)

1/4 cup bran (optional)

1 cup lukewarm water

1 teaspoon salt

pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds for topping

You can either prepare a sourdough at home which takes your two days or you can buy from a special sourdough bakery. Else use 1 packet of yeast.

Put the flour(durum wheat and bran) and salt into a bowl. Add lukewarm water and stir well. Then add sourdough and mix. A small amount (250 gr) of the resulting dough is then saved in a glass food storage with lid to use as old dough starter for the next batch. Thus, the sourdough bread is made by combining the increased amount of starter with another new dough addition, along with any other desired ingredients to make the final dough. As long as this sourdough mother is fed flour and water every 10 days, it can stay years in the refrigerator. For that reason, each sourdough has a distinct taste.

Shape the sticky dough or put into greased form(s) and allow to rise for five hours. Put pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds on top.

Bake at 180° C for 40 minutes and 200° C for 10 minutes in order to have a thick crust.

These sour cherries are picked from our garden at the end of June. After consuming the half, I stored the rest. First, I washed, pitted and packed them in airtight containers. Then covered them with plastic wrap.

It can be stored in the deep freezer like this, up to 7 – 8 months.

1 1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

75 gr butter (cut in cubes)

75 gr clotted cream

ginger powder

Mix thoroughly butter and sugar. Put flour, clotted cream, ginger powder and stir all together. Form into a roll. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

For the filling:

3oo gr stoned sour cherries (at this season frozen)

1 T corn starch

2 T caster sugar

1 T grated lemon rind

1 T lemon juice

1 egg white

Mix the filling. Put the mixture into a strainer, let the juice run.

Roll out the dough. Cut out round disks. Put the filling in the center, close and seal the dough. Brush with egg white, sprinkle with broken pieces of sugar lumps.